Foreign affairs minister sends deputy minister to Beijing to fix relations with CCP: report

The Canadian Press / Adrian Wyld

• By Rebel News

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Liberal Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly is sending her deputy minister David Morrison to China in an attempt to build a bridge with the Chinese Communist Party.

Sources told the Globe and Mail that Morrison's diplomatic mission will take place shortly

WATCH: @TheMenzoid and @SheilaGunnReid react to news of MP Han Dong resigning from the Liberal Party after allegations he provided advice to a Chinese diplomat regarding the 'Two Michaels' who were detained by the Communist regime.https://t.co/eu8xmXh7TC

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It is not yet known whether the move is a first step in getting Joly to visit China, as the relationship between the two countries remains tense.

Canada's relationship with the Chinese Communists has been strained in recent years, most identifiably because of the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou and the detention of the Two Michaels, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.

Two Michaels are free, but China still playing dirty with Canadian citizens

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The rumoured visit by her deputy comes amid recent revelations of Chinese intervention in Canadian elections in 2019 and 2021.

China has, of course, refuged those claims on multiple instances.

Joly has not yet been to China as Foreign Minister, though according to reports, a prominent CPC politician, Wang Yi, met with her in Munich this past February during the Munich Security Conference.

Joly spoke of the need for "pragmatic diplomacy" with China at that time.

Last year, Joly expelled Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei following The Globe's report revealing Beijing's targeting of Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong and his relatives in Hong Kong.

This move was seen as an attempt by Beijing to exert pressure on the MP. Mr. Chong had provoked China's ire by sponsoring a parliamentary motion condemning China's repression of Uyghurs.

Former Canadian Ambassador to China Guy Saint-Jacques told the Globe and Mail that he believed the visit could lead to Joly making her way to Beijing.

"It's part of trying to find some form of accommodation because right now there [are] almost no exchanges," he said, noting that a visit by a deputy is part of the "usual pattern."

"You send the deputy minister and he will be tasked to find enough to put together to justify the visit by the minister," he said.